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  • Lucasfilm’s 2024 Streaming Slate Officially Revealed

    Lucasfilm’s 2024 Streaming Slate Officially Revealed

    As Hollywood prepares to slow down for the holiday season, studios have begun rolling out information about their 2024 slates. With so many high-profile brands under its umbrella and its own streaming service, Disney is always one of the busiest studios in the business. Following an extended work stoppage in Hollywood, 2024 won’t be quite as busy as expected for the studio but there’s still quite a bit to look forward to, especially if you’re a Star Wars fan.

    Lucasfilm will roll out four Star Wars streaming series on Disney Plus over the course of 2024. While Disney did not reveal release windows, they officially revealed that The Acolyte, Season 3 of The Bad Batch, Season 2 of Tales of the Jedi and Skeleton Crew will hit the streaming service at some point.

    Recently, The Bad Batch and Tales of the Jedi were left off an official release by Disney UK, prompting reports that the two animated series might end up being delayed until 2025. While that’s not the case, it does seem that Season 2 of Andor, one of Lucasfilm’s most well-received Star Wars streaming series, will not release in 2024. Release slates rarely hold true, however, so anything from cancellations to delays to projects not currently listed ending up in 2024 is on the table.

    About Star Wars: The Bad Batch

    Star Wars: The Bad Batch follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch—a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army— each possess a singular exceptional skill that makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable
    crew.

    Star Wars: The Bad Batch is executive produced by Dave Filoni (The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Athena Portillo (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels), Brad Rau (Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance), Jennifer Corbett (Star Wars Resistance, NCIS) and Carrie Beck (The Mandalorian, Star Wars Rebels) with Josh Rimes (Star Wars Resistance, Star Wars: Visions) and Alex Spotswood (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels) as producers. Rau is also serving as supervising director with Corbett as head writer and Matt Michnovetz as story editor.

    About Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi

    Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi is an anthology of six all-new animated shorts produced by Lucasfilm Animation and created by Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels). Based on Star Wars and characters created by George Lucas, the series is set during the prequel era and spotlights important moments in the lives of fan-favorite characters Ahsoka Tano and Jedi-turned-Sith Lord Count Dooku as they embark on respective paths toward heroism and villainy. Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi features the voices of Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano; Corey Burton as Count Dooku; Janina Gavankar as Ahsoka’s mother, Pav-ti; Micheál Richardson as young Qui-Gon Jinn; TC Carson as Mace Windu; Ian McDiarmid as Darth Sidious; Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn; Phil
    Lamarr as Bail Organa; Clancy Brown as Inq.

    Dave Filoni is the creator, supervising director, executive producer, and writer of five of the six shorts: “Life and Death”; “Justice”; “The Sith Lord”; “Practice Makes Perfect”; and “Resolve.” Charles Murray and Élan Murray are the writers of “Choices.” Nathaniel Villanueva directs “Life and Death”; Charles Murray directs “Choices”; Saul Ruiz directs “Justice”; “The Sith Lord”; “Practice Makes Perfect”; and “Resolve.” In addition to Filoni, Athena Yvette Portillo and Carrie Beck are executive producers; Alex Spotswood and Josh Rimes are producers.

  • Dave Filoni on What’s Next for Thrawn

    Dave Filoni on What’s Next for Thrawn

    As the Season 1 finale of Ahsoka wrapped up, Grand Admiral Thrawn found his way back from his exile. Thrawn’s return from Peridea to the familiar confines of the galaxy far, far away comes at a time when the Imperial Remnant’s Shadow Council’s plans are coalescing and Thrawn’s long-awaited homecoming will likely provide them enough confidence to emerge from the shadows. Of course, when they do there will be a group of heroes ready to oppose their efforts which means a war is coming to the Star Wars universe.

    Lucasfilm’s Disney + Star Wars streaming series The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka have nicely set up the coming war under the watchful eye of the studio’s newly named Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni. That war is expected to unfold on screen in Filoni’s “Heir to the Empire” film but there’s still plenty of work to do before then with the live-action series Skeleton Crew (streaming sometime in 2024) and a fourth season of The Mandalorian (likely streaming in 2025) likely to continue to set the stage for Thrawn’s strategic strike. In an interview with Empire, Filoni teased what’s ahead for Thrawn and who will likely take the lead in opposing him.

    “We set up Captain Pellaeon in The Mandalorian, and that’s a character that goes with Thrawn, so I’d love to see the two of them together,” said Filoni, referring to a character from Star Wars Legends that was introduced into canon in 2018 in Star Wars Rebels and made his live-action debut, played by Xander Berkeley, in Chapter 23 of The Mandalorian. Pellaeon was Thrawn’s right-hand man, remained loyal to him for years after he disappeared aboard the Chimaera and will certainly be by his side as the Heir to the Empire attempts to reestablish Imperial rule across the galaxy. But as teased in the closing moments of Ahsoka, one of Thrawn’s craftiest opponents will be ready to stand in his way.

    While Ahsoka and Sabine were trapped on Peridea in the Ahsoka finale, Ezra Bridger was able to escape and reunite with the members of the Rebels crew now working with the New Republic, including Mary Elizabeth Winstead‘s Hera Syndulla who has proven to be a thrown in Grand Admiral Thrawn’s side. From what Filoni says, it sounds like that’s something that’s going to continue in the New Republic era stories yet to unfold. “His foil throughout Rebels was Hera“, said Filoni. “Pitting the two generals against one another is something that I find interesting.” And something Thrawn will no doubt enjoy.

  • Disney Confirms Two Star Wars Animated Series WILL NOW Debut in 2024

    Disney Confirms Two Star Wars Animated Series WILL NOW Debut in 2024

    When Season 3 of The Bad Batch and Season 2 of Tales of the Jedi were recently left off a list of Disney’s 2024 projects published by Marvel UK, it appeared the new seasons of two animated series had been bumped to 2025. That is not the case.

    In an official release from Disney, the two series have been confirmed to be slates to return in 2024. Though neither have been given firm release dates as yet, The Bad Batch Season 3 and Tales of the Jedi Season 2 will stream on Disney + in 2024.

    Updating…

  • ‘Thunderbolts’ Star Wyatt Russell Confirms Start Date, Teases U.S. Agent’s Development

    ‘Thunderbolts’ Star Wyatt Russell Confirms Start Date, Teases U.S. Agent’s Development

    At the end of the day, Marvel Studios Thunderbolts project is a survivor. Having undergone multiple rewrites, production delays and release date shifts, the film is currently slated for a July 25, 2025 release date. And while skeptics may choose to take a wait and see approach, one star has given an encouraging update about the project.

    Monarch: Legacy of Monsters star Wyatt Russell is set to star in Thunderbolts as Super Soldier John Walker, a character he first portrayed in Marvel Studios Disney + streaming series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. After a tumultuous arc in that project, Walker found himself allied with Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine which explains how the character will find himself up against the Sentry in Thunderbolts, a project he’s been talking up quite a bit recently.

    According to Russell, Thunderbolts “almost started shooting that about 14 times” but between changes to the creative team and a pair of strikes, it never did. That’s all about to change, however, according to the star, as production is slated to begin in “March or April,” confirming information we shared here.

    Russell is eager to get back to work as Walker, a character he says has room to grow. “There’s so much to play with John, and there’s so much more to do with John, said Russell in an interview with THR. “I’m so lucky to get to work with the kind of talent that I’m going to work with when Thunderbolts starts up in March or April.“

    While that talent does not include Daniel Bruhl and Harrison Ford, Thunderbolts does boast an impressive ensemble cast including, Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan and Steven Yeun, who will play the powerful Sentry, a crew Russell is excited to work with, especially with director Jake Schreier behind the camera. “It just feels like we’re going for something that has depth and something interesting to theorize about beyond just flying around and doing superhero stuff.” Should it get underway next Spring, we’ll likely get a chance to finally check it out in 2025.

    Source: THR

  • “Optimistic” about ‘Dune: Part Two’, Warner Bros. Has Reportedly Given a Third Film the Green Light

    “Optimistic” about ‘Dune: Part Two’, Warner Bros. Has Reportedly Given a Third Film the Green Light

    The highly anticipated sequel to uber auteur extraordinaire Denis Villeneuve‘s 2021 Dune will finally hit theaters in March after navigating the chaotic landscape of Hollywood’s recent strike-related work stoppages. The sequel, which will run 2 hours and 46 minutes–eleven minutes longer than the first–will adapt the second half of Frank Herbert‘s sci-fi epic but that doesn’t mean the story of Paul Atreides will come to an end.

    For some time, Villeneuve has expressed his desire to adapt Herbert’s novel, Dune: Messiah, into a third film, allowing the supermega visionary director to complete a trilogy and achieve his “dream.” Though it’s not quite ready to roll out just yet, the maestro recently revealed that his screenplay for the third film is “almost finished. And while WB hasn’t officially given the film the go ahead, one industry insider says it’s a sure thing.

    Jeff “The InSneider” Sneider has shared that Warner Bros is “so bullish on Villeneuve’s vision for Dune that Part Three has been already been greenlit with a 2027 release date in mind.” Why the optimism? According to Sneider, “WB sees Part Two as a home run, and internally, I’m hearing the studio is already projecting an opening north of $100 million.”

    Dune: Messiah, originally published serially in 1969 in Galaxy magazine, follows Paul, now the Emperor of the known universe and examines the consequences of his astonishing rise to power.

    About Dune: Part Two

    The saga continues as award-winning filmmaker, Denis Villeneuve embarks on the next chapter of Frank Herbert’s celebrated novel, DUNE with an expanded all-star international ensemble cast.

    Dune: Part Two will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of hisife and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can forsee.

    The big-screen epic continues the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s acclaimed bestseller DUNE with returning stars including, Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet (“Wonka,” “Call Me by Your Name”), Zendaya (“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Malcolm & Marie,” “Euphoria”), Rebecca Ferguson (“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning”), Oscar winner Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men,” “Being the Ricardos”), Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” “Army of the Dead”), Stellan Skarsgård (the “Mamma Mia!” films, “Avengers: Age of Ultron”), Dave Bautista (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, “Thor: Love and Thunder”), Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years,” “Assassin’s Creed”), Stephen McKinley Henderson (“Fences,” “Lady Bird”). Also joining the returning cast are Austin Butler (“Elvis,” “Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood”) as the notorious Feyd Rautha and screen legend, Christopher Walken (“The Deer Hunter,” “Hairspray”) as the Emperor. Florence Pugh (“Black Widow,” “Little Women”) and Léa Seydoux (the “James Bond” franchise and “Crimes of the Future”) and Souheila Yacoub (the “No Man’s Land” series, “Climax”) round out the extensive ensemble cast.

    Sources: YouTube, The InSneider

  • The Truth Is Out There: Ryan Coogler’s ‘X-Files’ Revival Confirmed

    The Truth Is Out There: Ryan Coogler’s ‘X-Files’ Revival Confirmed

    In March 2023, X-Files creator Chris Carter indicated that Black Panther franchise director Ryan Coogler was working to “remount” the sci-fi drama. “I just spoke to a young man, Ryan Coogler, who is going to remount ‘The X-Files’ with a diverse cast,” said Carter in an interview with Variety. “He’s got his work cut out for him, because we covered so much territory,” added Carter. Since that interview, word on the project has been kept locked up tightly in the basement office of the FBI but now, Bloomberg has confirmed the reboot is in the works.

    According to the site, Coogler, whose Proximity Media signed a 5-year overall deal with Disney in 2021, will produce the new version of the beloved series. The original series ran on Fox for nine seasons from 1993 to 2002 before two additional seasons ran in 2016 and 2018. Two films, The X-Files and The X-Files: I Want to Believe, were also produced.

    What ties, if any, the new series will have to the original, is unknown. Carter’s Fox series developed a deep and sprawling mythology in a world of unimaginably vast conspiracies…which sounds an awful lot like modern times.

    Source: Bloomberg

  • Marvel Studios May Be Considering a Total Overhaul on ‘Avengers 5′ Following Jonathan Majors’ Firing

    Marvel Studios May Be Considering a Total Overhaul on ‘Avengers 5′ Following Jonathan Majors’ Firing

    In the wake of Jonathan Majors‘ firing following a pair of guilty verdicts being passed down on the actor, Marvel Studios is now said to be contemplating a major overhaul of the project formerly known as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.

    According to THR’s Aaron Couch and Borys Kit, the studio has taken to calling the project Avengers 5 and begun considering replacing Kang the Conqueror–thr villain played by Majors–with an all new, all-different villain.HR speculates

    THR speculates that the move to replace writer Jeff Loveness with Michael Waldron may indicate a desire to shift the narrative entirely away from Kang. While sources have not indicated that’s the studio’s preferred move, now is as good a time as any to move on. Short of not following through on a post-credits scene–which would hardly be a first for the studio–there aren’t many plot points left dangling around the character of Kang.

    Source: THR

  • BREAKING: Marvel Studios Cuts Ties with Jonathan Majors

    BREAKING: Marvel Studios Cuts Ties with Jonathan Majors

    Following a pair of guilty verdicts were leveled against Jonathan Majors, Marvel Studios has parted ways with the actor. Majors was found guilty of reckless assault on the third degree and of harassment stemming from an incident with a former partner in March.

    Majors was cast as Kang the Conqueror–amd several Variants–in 2020 and after appearances in Loki and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, was set up as the main villain of the Multiverse Saga. The actor would have been the central figure in Avengers; The Kang Dynasty which is currently set for a May 1, 2026 release.

    According to THR, Marvel will look to recast and plans to move forward with The Kang Dynasty. Writer Michael Waldron recently boarded the project, taking over writing duties from Jeff Loveness who wrote Quantumania.

    Updating

    Source: THR

  • The All-New, All-Different Hypothetical 2025 Marvel Studios Release Calendar, V1

    The All-New, All-Different Hypothetical 2025 Marvel Studios Release Calendar, V1

    Bob Iger‘s return to Disney and a pair of strikes have rendered nearly everything we once thought we knew irrelevant. Movies once slated for 2023 or 2024 have been moved to 2025 and the domino effect has probably only just begun. With so much having changed since last we ventured into the waters of the hypothetical calendar, it’s high time to relaunch them anew…and adifferent.

    January 8th-March 5th: Daredevil: Born Again, Episodes 1-9

    Following a major creative overhaul, the first episodes of Daredevil: Born Again–which were originally slated to debut in the Spring of 2024–are now TENTATIVELY on track to drop in January 2025. Though they didn’t throw the baby out with the bath water, it sounds like showrunner Dario Scardapane and new directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are going to take their time and make sure the MCU’s first Daredevil project does the character justice and given Bob Iger‘s demands that the projects live up to the high standards previously set for Marvel Studios, that might mean this gets pushed even further. We’ll know more shortly after the first of the year as we’ve recently heard that production is meant to get underway in January.

    February 14th: Captain America: Brave New World

    Reports of significant reshoots on Cap 4 lined up with Disney’s decision to move the film into 2025. Those reports suggested that the film will undergo roughly 5 months of additional photography which is a longer period of time than the film was in production for the first time around. Now, the studio has brought on a brand new writer in Matthew Orton and though they are targeting a mid-2024 restart, production will not resume until his work on the script is done. Throw in the amount of time it’ll take to make the VFX hold up–especially with an appearance by the Red Hulk in the cards–and the February 2025 date makes all the sense in the world.

    May 2nd: Fantastic Four

    Fantastic Four was announced at SDCC ’19 and two long work stoppages have kept pushing it further and further down the road though it’s continually in the news cycle. At this point, all anyone wants is for the casting rumors around this project to come to an end and for cameras to roll. According to a relatively recent interview with director Matt Shakman, production should get underway next Spring and be ready to serve as the studio’s tentpole film for 2025 and launch the summer movie season…just as it should.

    June 27th: Spider-Man 4

    No project on this hypothetical calendar is more hypothetical than this one. If all the rumors are true, its release is partially dependent on Daredevil: Born Again–and that’s IF the creative threads that originally tied the two projects together stay in the series with the new showrunner taking over. Throw in that there’s been no official announcement from Sony about this project and that Tom Holland‘s “new deal” hasn’t been officially announced either and you’ve got even more reason to think this one may not happen in 2025 at all. However, a script has been in the works for most of the year, Sony has this date on the calendar for a Marvel film and, at the moment, doesn’t have any other projects that seem to fit the date. On the other hand, rumors persist that Jon Watts may be on board to direct and plans are being made to film next summer…

    July 25th: Thunderbolts

    By the time production finally starts on this project, the entire plot will have been leaked online. Despite multiple creative retoolings and a revolving door of writers, Thunderbolts is ultimately only delayed by a year from its original July 26, 2024 release date. Production is currently set to get underway in the spring with a TENTATIVE April start on the books.

    September 3rd-October 8th: Ironheart

    A project that has been in the can for quite some time, Ironheart is on track to release 2 full years after it was originally slated to hit Disney Plus. It’ll be interesting to see if Disney ever addresses exactly why this series took so long to release (not even VFX touch-ups and reshoots can explain away a 2-year move), especially when the footage shown at 2022’s D23 looked pretty fun.

    November 7th: Blade

    Mahershala Ali has the patience of a saint. Ali is the driving force behind this project which, like Fantastic Four, was announced over 4 years ago, and is staying the course despite several changes to the creative team over the past year or so and the delays due to the strikes. As of now, Blade looks like it’ll actually start production in the second half of 2024 and be ready for theaters, complete with an R-rating, by November 2025!

    All in all, this is a major revamp from the last time we rolled out a hypothetical 2025 calendar. With things at Disney never having been in flux more than they are now, it’ll be fun to see just how much of this holds true.

  • New Rumor Has ‘Spider-Man 4’ Turning into a Street-Level Civil War

    New Rumor Has ‘Spider-Man 4’ Turning into a Street-Level Civil War

    During SDCC ’22, Marvel Studios The One Above All, Kevin Feige, made it clear that Daredevil and Spider-Man were being propped up as the leaders of the street-level stories the studio had planned. By that time, development on the story for a fourth installment in the MCU-set Spidey franchise has been ongoing for several months and by the end of 2022, rumors had begun to swirl that star Tom Holland had agreed to a new deal that would allow Sony and Marvel Studio to continue their successful collaboration. Though no confirmation of that deal ever came through, in early 2023, Feige confirmed that the “big idea” for Spider-Man 4 had been found and that writers were “putting pen to paper”; of course, like every other project in Hollywood, development on that script came to a halt when the Writers Guild of America began their strike–the first of two major strikes in the industry–in late May. With the strikes settled and Hollywood finding its way back to some semblance of normalcy, the rumor mill has been kickstarted and some interesting rumors about what that fourth Spidey film might be have made the rounds.

    Just last week, insider Daniel RPK indicated that–as has been expected for some time–Daredevil will team up with Spider-Man in Spidey 4. However, according to RPK, while The Man Without Fear seems set for a major role in the film, another Marvel hero might join him in a…smaller role…as Paul Rudd‘s Scott Lang has been mentioned as potentially having a role similar in size to that of Tony Stark in Spider-Man: Homecoming or Doctor Strange in Spider-Man: No Way Home. As has been rumored for quite some time, the film would see Spidey and his pals take on Wilson Fisk’s Kingpin, who is rumored to become the Mayor of New York in Daredevil: Born Again and set his sights on the city’s vigilantism.

    While Born Again is undergoing significant restructuring under the watchful eyes of directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead and showrunner Dario Scardapane, both Holland and Kingpin actor Vincent D’Onofrio have expressed their desires to see the Fat Man take on the Web-Slinger in Spidey 4, making it likely that whatever ties existed between the two projects before will remain. Now, a new rumor from a very solid source seems to support that idea and adds a little more spice to the dish!

    According to Cryptic HD Quality, Marvel and Sony are treating Spider-Man 4 as their “Street Level CIVIL WAR,” referencing Captain America: Civil War, the film in which Holland made his MCU debut as Spidey.

    https://twitter.com/Cryptic4KQual/status/1736525726864556503?t=sVRzfVTXe8LkMf3WuZM65Q&s=19

    Putting together a street-level Civil War would mean that Spidey would need to bring in some more of his amazing friends, and according to the rumor mill, that’s exactly what he’ll be doing. Cryptic HD Quality went on to reveal that Peter Parker would be aided by a roster of heroes that includes–but is not limited to–Haille Steinfeld‘s Kate Bishop, Alaqua Cox‘s Maya Lopez/Echo and Jessica Jones. Jones has long been rumored to return in multiple projects such as Echo and Daredevil: Born Again and the studio has been eager to work with actress Krysten Ritter who has also expressed an interest in revisiting the character who she first played in 2015 in Netflix’s Jessica Jones.

    I would absolutely just die to play Jessica again. I had the best time doing it and I just love her so much. I’m so proud of that character. Not only because it was like a great role and she’s such a bad-ass, but that character has really resonated with people in a way that I don’t know who else has. Really, really resonated with women and girls, trauma survivors. It’s just so, so big and such a thing I’m so grateful to have been a part of. So if there’s ever an opportunity for me to put on those boots, I will be there in a flash.

    Krysten Ritter on returning to the role of Jessica Jones

    While the insider didn’t include the character on his list of street-level allies that Spidey might recruit, The Punisher seems like a possibility to join the squad as well. Jon Bernthal is set to reprise the role in Daredevil: Born Again and D’Onofrio has indicated he’d love to see Fisk square off with Frank Castle in the MCU, specifically in Spider-Man 4. That cast of characters joining Holland’s Peter Parker would certainly make for the type of big event film that Sony and Disney would like to put together for the Wall-Crawler’s next outing. Now…just what villains would Kinpin assemble on his side of the equation to be worthy of such a roster of heroes…?